


In the time rift

by Schuu



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: AU, Action & Romance, Action/Adventure, Conspiracy, M/M, Parallel Universes, Romance, Time Travel, krtsk, kurotsuki - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-06
Updated: 2021-01-06
Packaged: 2021-03-17 08:27:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,799
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28596945
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Schuu/pseuds/Schuu
Summary: One day Kuroo finds himself in a sequence of strange events when the whole world around him stops except just one person.
Relationships: Kuroo Tetsurou/Tsukishima Kei
Kudos: 42





	In the time rift

**Author's Note:**

  * A translation of [В разломе времени](https://archiveofourown.org/works/28596753) by [Schuu](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Schuu/pseuds/Schuu). 



> Inspired by Quantum Break.  
> Topic: mint - protection, warm feelings  
> Written for Kurotsuki Flower Zine https://twitter.com/KrtskZine
> 
> Thanks to dear Anna for this translation.

Kuroo was sitting in a dark gray room for almost three hours. He tried to act as if nothing had happened, looking around, tapping metallic surface of the table with his fingertips and recalling all the hits he ever heard on the car radio.

At the beginning of the fourth hour, the door of the interrogation room opened, and a tall, slender man, who in Kuroo's opinion looked too young for the job, entered the room. The man didn’t shut the door behind him, and the warm light of the hallway lamp seeped into the interrogation room - Kuroo could even catch a glimpse of the guard’s shoulder at the entrance.

Inspector put a thin folder and a planner on the table, set down a cup of coffee. Kuroo looked into his eyes closely.

“Would you like some coffee?” the man asked.

“No, thanks.”

“Do you mind if I…”

“Sure, go ahead.”

“My name is Tsukishima Kei.” The man took off his jacket and hung it on the back of chair. He was wearing a plain black shirt. “How can I call you?”

“Kuroo. Kuroo Tetsuro.”

“Nice to meet you, Kuroo.” Tsukushima came over to the opposite side of the table, took the pen out of his chest pocket and started spinning it around his fingers.

Yet, he didn’t sit down. Kuroo smiled at him and didn’t reply.

Tsukishima lowered his gaze to the folder on the table and sighed. Finally, he took it and started studying the first page without saying a word. He was still spinning the pen around his thumb, and Kuroo kept getting distracted by the motion.

“Do you know why you are here?” after a while he looked up from the papers glancing at Kuroo.

“I hope you would tell me.”

“Maybe you have some ideas?”

“Absolutely nothing,” Kuroo shrugged.

“Then, what do you think this is?” Tsukushima nodded at the folder.

“I don’t have a slightest idea.”

Tsukishima put the open folder back on the table. It didn’t look like he wanted Kuroo to take a look; he was simply setting it aside.

“How has your day been so far?” Tsukishima unbuttoned his cuffs and rolled up his sleeves, and his whole appearance showed that they were going to have a very long talk.

“Not really well, honestly speaking. I was brought here in the morning, now it’s probably lunchtime and I still don’t know why I am here.”

“I know what you mean. I hope this is all just a misunderstanding,” Tsukishima nodded and glanced at the folder again. “When did you first meet Oikawa Tooru?”

“I don’t really know him,” Kuroo replied.

“And you have never heard this name?”

“Sure enough, I did.” Kuroo shrugged. “He is professor at Technological University in Miyagi, and I work there.”

Tsukishima silently nodded, pushing back the chair and sitting down across Kuroo. He turned a page in the folder, running his long fingers over the attached photographs. He was silent, which made Kuroo suddenly think that he was just playing for time. But why? For instant, the wire frame of his glasses reflected the cold light of the lamp, and his clean-cut beautiful features looked somewhat predatory. And this stupid habit of his, not letting go of the pen...

“As far as I know, you’ve been working in university since 2016. Haven’t you met before?”

“Does watching his speech from the stage count?”

Tsukishima surprisingly chuckled, as if he found something funny in Kuroo's words. The pen in his fingers finally came to a stop. Kuroo, who had already gotted tired of the constant fidgeting, sighed with relief, trying at the same time not to reveal his irritation.

That’s why, at first he did not notice that Tsukishima was no longer holding the pen. His hands were folded on the table, and the fountain pen, half a turn, was hanging in the mid-air. Frozen.

Kuroo jumped up, knocking over the chair. Nonchalant smile slipped from Tsukishima’s face and he regained composure. He took a quick glance at the watch and pressed the side button to set the stopwatch.

“What the…” Kuroo uttered in shock, when didn’t hear the sound of the chair hitting the floor. The chair he knocked over was frozen in the mid-air touching the floor with only two legs.  
His insides turned cold.

“We need to get out of here.”Tsukushima’s voice changed. He stood up grabbing the levitating pen and hiding it away in the chest pocket.

“But where?” Kuroo shockingly asked, but Tsukushima was no longer listening to him.

He rushed out of the interrogation room, forgetting about both coffee and the file, as if they were the details he no longer needed. The guard at the door did not show any reaction, and it was only after he ran out after Tsukishima, Kuroo realized why - the officer was completely still, like a wax figure in Madame Tussauds, with his mouth open in a yawn. Absolutely motionless.

“What the hell?” Kuroo staggered away from him, completely lost because of everything that was happening. His brain desperately tried to find answers, to get pieces of this terrifying unfamiliar puzzle together. Did the time … stop?

It was the only logical answer.

Suddenly, Kuroo felt a hand on his shoulder, and his unstable legs almost gave away.

“I’ll explain everything on the way,” Tsukishima’s voice pulled him out of stupor. “We have three minutes to leave.”

Kuroo turned to him – the look on Tsukishima’s face showed that he was not taken aback or surprised, he knew what was happening, he ...

Tsukishima dragged Kuroo with him and dashed down the hallway, so fast that he could hardly keep up. Zigzagging through the halls, he led Kuroo in a different way than two men with badges in civilian clothes, who had brought him in in the morning. They had almost reached the fire escape behind the elevator when a sudden powerful jolt threw them back.

The whole building started to vibrate; the elevator doors slid open and closed again with a bang. Kuroo was shaking his head in shock as everything around him filled with noise and died away, again and again. Tsukishima rolled over and jumped to his feet, picking up glasses that had fallen from his nose.

“Can you explain what is happening?”

“The building is collapsing,” Tsukishima took a quick glance at his watch, at the emergency exit, and clicked his tongue in disapproval.

Kuroo followed his gaze, noticing a crack creeping along the wall.

“Damn,” he sighed, crawling back and standing up. “The time is running again?”

“Glad that you noticed,” Tsukishima walked back towards the intersection in the hall. “Follow me.”

“Can we skip the sarcasm?” the Kuroo was about to start, but froze when a guard jumped out from around the corner and pointed a gun at him.

“You! Hands on your head!’” he ordered.

Tsukishima also came to a stop, noticing the approaching reinforcements behind the guard.

"I had no intention to run away," Kuroo spat out right away, throwing up his hands.

“So you’re a traitor after all,” the guard turned the muzzle at Tsukishima and shoot at him, straight in the chest without further warning.

Kuroo had no time to grasp what was happening. He had no time to recover. The chaos unleashing in front of his eyes was even more shocking than a gunshot. The crashing noise behind him was not as overwhelming as the sudden rush of deja vu.

Everything was covered with fog. A loud and rather painful slap in the face brought Kuroo to senses.

Tsukishima, safe and sound, was standing across him, grabbing Kuroo’s shoulder.

“Kuroo, wake up, we have to leave.”

Kuroo looked up at him and slowly took a glance over his shoulder, where the guard, frozen in time, was shooting empty space in front of him. The gun lit up with a flash of golden sparks, firing a bullet and pulling it back in. Over and over again, like a broken record.

Tsukishima tried to pull Kuroo with him, but he didn't budge.

“I am not going anywhere unless you explain what is happening.”

“The building is about to collapse and the time too.” Tsukishima hastily explained. “If we don’t leave, we die.”

“This, I get without you telling me. I am asking what. is. happening.”

Tsukishima glanced back at the guard, stuck in the same position, who Kuroo couldn’t stop staring at.

“It’s time-shifts,” he stated at last. “There should be three shifts before time resumes its regular flow, destroying the space and everything around. This one was the second one, and we can’t be inside when the third is over. So, please, come with me.”

He was speaking with a barely noticeable irritation, obviously making an effort to be patient. Could it really be…Could this crazy bunch of nonsense really be true?”

“Why are you trying to save me? Who are you?”

“I am your…” he paused, pursing lips, and slowly sighed. “Friend. I came to save you. The first time-shift, you should have died in it. I am here not to let it happen.”

“Like in Back to the Future?” Kuroo raised his eyebrows.

The corners of Tsukishima’s mouth twitched, but he suppressed a smile.

“Unfortunately, no, but I am from your future. So, will you come with me now?”

Kuroo nodded and they rushed to the other direction down the hallway.

“I still got lots of questions, hope, you will explain everything to me when we get out of here.”

Tsukishima jumped out a different door this time, which led to the emergency staircase and ran downstairs.

“You should thank your friend Oikawa for this deadly present,” he snapped on his way.

“But we are not even friends,” Kuroo objected.

“In this reality, no.”

“You are kidding.”   
Kuroo couldn’t yet digest the facts he heard before and now he had the new ones. Moreover, the next shock rocked the entire building. A whole flight of stairs in front of them crushed and collapsed as soon as Tsukishima put his foot on it. Inertia pulled him forward, and Kuroo, without even thinking, grabbed Tsukishima by the collar and yanked him back, saving him from the fall.

“Damn, that was close,” he released a breath of relief staring at a huge gap. Tsukishima nodded with appreciation, trying to catch his breath. “So, what now?”

They looked at each other. Tsukishima once again took a glance at his watch resetting the stopwatch.

“If you’d stopped asking about the freaking answers, we would have broken through,” he hissed angrily. “Let’s wait, this pause is the shortest, if we are lucky, the staircase will rebuild.”

All of a sudden, he leaned back on the wall, pulling Kuroo with him. The railing from the upper floors collapsed right on the place they were just standing.

“What do you mean, rebuild?” Kuroo shouted over the noise.

“I already told you that there are three time-shifts. The first one is static,” Tsukishima looked around as if expecting something. “The second one you saw with the guard. The time tries to resume its flow in short intervals. The third will be in three, two…”

First, a railing flew up in front of their eyes. A heavy concrete staircase levitated and lay at their feet like an unrolled carpet.

“Come on!” Tsukishima dashed downstairs skipping the stairs.

Kuroo rushed after him without hesitation. And right on time. As soon as he was on the next safe island, the stairs collapsed behind him again.

“Let’s get out of here.” Tsukishima came to a stop and leaped out through the doors on the first floor.

They ran along the hallway, passing people coming back into motion and again freezing in time. Kuroo felt like “Attack of the Clones” character, every now and then avoiding hazards and obstacles on the conveyor belt.

As soon as they broke through the fireworks of glass shards in the main hall, Kuroo wanted to collapse on the ground to catch his breath. However, Tsukishima grabbed his hand and led him to the farthest parking lot.

From the windows of the driving away car, Kuroo could see how time, having resumed its flow, was destroying the building behind. Tsukishima confidently avoided gaps cracking open on the road.

“Why weren’t we frozen? Are we somehow special?”

Tsukishima smirked and leaving his gaze at the road, nodded.

“Mainly, only you”.

Kuroo snorted.

“Hardly helpful. So, you said we are friends? Thanks for saving me.”

“I am just returning a debt,” Tsukishima shrugged.

“What debt? I don’t think we have met before, I would’ve never forgotten it.”

Tsukishima took his eyes off the road for a moment and looked at Kuroo, so gently, so… full of trust? He smiled faintly and focused on the road again.

“I have to leave soon, so listen carefully,” he said turning the car to a lonely gas station. “This is not your real life, as you can travel beyond time. You are here because of Oikawa Tooru, you developed a project together which makes the time stop and makes it possible to travel along your timeline.”

Kuroo couldn't help a snort as he followed Tsukishima out of the car. They were alone at this empty gas station, which was at least a bit reassuring. No guards trying to kill them, no collapsing buildings.

“Are you serious? I am that smart?”

“Not in this life, obviously,” Tsukishima snapped. “But yes, if it makes you feel better. In parallel future you quickly realized that the time stop causes space to shift. You both tried to fix it, but in different ways,”

“Don’t know which ways,” Kuroo remarked. “But if you are saving me now, my theory must have been successful?”

Tsukishima nodded.

“They didn’t listen to you - you became a nuisance and they decided to count you out. Oikawa Tooru travelled back his timeline to the day you met and severed all ties with you, creating this reality where you don’t know each other, and he could own everything you developed together.”

“What an asshole,” Kuroo cursed. However, something was off. He frowned.   
“But, wait, according to the time machine theory, it’s impossible to travel back to time before it was invented. How come Oikawa traveled back to the moment we met? It was obviously before we started working together….”

Tsukishima took out a pack of cigarettes and glanced at Kuroo.

“This is not really a time machine, as I said, you can travel along your lifeline, not really physically. Like travelling around your conscious mind. You want a smoke?” He handed Kuroo a pack of cigarettes, but Kuroo shook his head.

“I don’t smoke.”

Tsukishima seemed to sigh with relief.

“Good to hear. Never liked the tobacco smell on you.”

Kuroo looked at him, but Tsukishima turned away, tossing the cigarettes through the open window on the back seat of the car.

“You…”

“In three days we will meet,” Tsukishima suddenly realized he was saying too much, and did not plan to continue. “I won't recognize you and let’s say... it will take some time to get to know each other.”

“And what do you want me to do?” Kuroo leaned back, his hips touching the carhood, closely inspecting Tsukishima.

“You have to stop Oikawa. He doesn’t know I came to you in this reality. You should have died today in that building.”

Kuroo smirked, though his body was still trembling and his insides shrinking from the gradually coming realization.

“So, you saved me because you were returning a debt?”

Tsukishima didn’t say anything and turned away, closely listening to something. He reached for the watch on his wrist, relaxed the strap and let the heavy bracelet slide off his thin wrist.

“When we meet, I may be too hostile.” Tsukishima held out the watch to Kuroo. “Give them to me, believe me, it will save you. This watch belonged to my brother, Akiteru, I am always wearing them since his death. I was eighteen when he died.”

Kuroo hardy could get why Tsukishima was telling him all of this. He silently picked up the watch, staring at the simple white dial. The metal was still warm from Tsukishima's skin, carrying the faint scent of cologne and mint.

This was all so weird. Kuroo never thought that his life could turn upside down one day, and he would be in the damn matrix. In the morning, before the arrest, he had been drinking coffee and preparing for a lecture, and now there he was, at a suburban gas station, with a perhaps too handsome man whom he barely knew, discussing the time travel.

Tsukishima seemed to be avoiding his gaze, looking anywhere but at Kuroo. And Kuroo could not take his eyes off him, studying every detail, looking for clues.

“Oikawa's lab is at the basement of university campus,” continued Tsukishima. “The time device is not complete yet. Oikawa needs more time to finish it without you. You need to stop him before he finishes his experiments.”

Kuroo nodded, though he had no idea how he would manage to do it all. Tsukishima, apparently, noticed something, reading it on his face. He approached, standing opposite.

"Tetsuro," Kuroo flinched. The sound of his own name coming from someone else's lips sounded so alien and yet so ... familiar. “I have to believe you and help you. You understand?”

“Oh, don’t worry, I’ll think of something.”

“I’m sure you will,” smiled Tsukishima.

He looked surprisingly friendly, exuding some special intimate warmth directed only towards Kuroo. It was impossible to resist. Kuroo simply could not, and, for an instant, it felt like Tsukishima was going to kiss him. Kuroo didn’t really mind. Not at all.

But Tsukishima turned away, taking a couple of steps back.

“You have to go.” He tossed Kuroo the car keys. “Don't come home. Stay with Bokuto for a few days.”

"You know him too?" Kuroo really wanted to ask these questions. “What are you to me? Are we close? "

Kuroo fiddled with the car key, chuckling, and looked up at Tsukishima.

“How can you be so sure I won’t run away? Just leave everything be?” 

Tsukishima grinned, and Kuroo felt heat spreading under his skin from that smile.

“I know you too well. You just can’t,” Tsukishima said.

Leaving the gas station, Kuroo thought that now had even more questions, and Tsukishima's words before they parted were stuck in his head. "See you in three days."

The badge branded “Oikawa Technologies” hung around Tsukishima’s neck, and Tsukishima himself looked at Kuroo with such hatred ... it was hard to believe that this was the same man who saved him from collapsing building three days ago. Certainly, not the same person. Not yet.

Were it not for Kuroo's palm on Tsukishima's lips, he would have woken up all the guards long ago, it's just fortunate that Kuroo had enough strength to hold him in place and not allow a sound.

“Just listen to me," Kuroo whispered. “I did not come to harm you.”

Tsukishima frowned even harder, and Kuroo almost let go of him: he was so hot when angry ...

“I'll take my hand away, just don't shout, okay?” Kuroo begged.

Tsukishima squinted at him, staring coldly from behind the neat rim of his glasses.  
Kuroo gently removed his hand from his lips.

“What do you need, Kuroo?” Tsukishima grunted right away.

With his other hand Kuroo was still gripping both of his wrists and did not seem to let go soon.

"You ..." Kuroo was taken aback. “Do you know me?”

“You bet.”

“Then you must know the reason I came. I need your help.” Kuroo gently unclenched his hands. The moment the felt the grip weaken, Tsukishima ripped out his wrists and pushed him in the chest.

“Have you lost your mind? Never in my life would I help you.”

"What the hell is going on?" Kuroo gritted his teeth. Most of all, he wanted to find the same Tsukishima he met three days ago and shake even more answers out of him. But instead, he had to deal with the real Tsukishima, who did not give Kuroo any warm smiles, and who apparently hated him.

“You yourself asked me to find you,” Kuroo raised his hand, rolling up sleeves and showing Tsukishima a silver watch with a white dial.  
Tsukishima's face changed. He stumbled back to the wall, staring at Kuroo's wrist.

“Where did you get them from?” He looked Kuroo in the eyes, dumbfounded, shocked, frightened.

“You gave them to me.”

“Impossible.”

“Possible. They belonged to Akiteru, You wear them since the day he died. And you gave them to me yourself, promising to help.”

For a few long moments they stood still in the semi-darkness of an empty conference room. Tsukishima was looking at his watch, and the dial caught rare rays of light breaking through the vertical blinds, which reflected in the surface of his glasses.

“Oikawa’s experiments were successful,” he finally said, quiet and even too calm.

“No, not yet,” Kuroo sighed with relief seeing that Tsukishima finally comprehended something and was ready to listen. “I mean, yeah, they were, but not in this reality. And the time is being destroyed, you...”

“Space,” Tsukishima corrected, looking up at him. “The space is being destroyed.”

“You know it,” Kuroo was ready to howl with joy, from the fact that Tsukishima understood him, from the fact that perhaps everything he had gone through during these three days was not in vain.

“This is one of the possible side effects of the project,” Tsukishima lowered his tense gaze to the floor, thinking about something. “I gave you this watch and asked you to find me.”

He was not asking now, he was stating the facts. Of course, damn it, Tsukishima was working on Oikawa's project, he knew what time was capable of, and what he himself was capable.

“Did I tell you why?” Tsukishima looked up at Kuroo, and his eyes no longer had any hostility in the.

“You said only you can help me to stop all these experiments.”

“We must not allow disintegration,” said Tsukishima, straightening up. Collected and serious, this was the man Kuroo saw for the first time. And now he was seeing him again.

Kuroo pulled the bracelet off his wrist and handed it to Tsukishima.

“So it means, you will help me?”

Tsukishima took the watch, thoughtfully looking at the dial, and finally nodded.

“Yes. But at first, we have to get you out of here.”

He grabbed Kuroo’s shoulder as a few days ago and dragged him with him. The familiar scent of cologne and mint, the familiar sensation, deja vu. Kuroo stepped forward, allowing Tsukishima to lead the way. No matter what happens next, they'll figure it out together.


End file.
